Belgium!

Hello everyone, I guess it's time for a blog update and I hope this goes ok as I'm on my iPad with very slow connection. Bare with me! I'm here in Oudenaarde - The last few days have been a roller coaster, since the Aer Lingus strike was starting Tuesday we had to change our flights and come a few days early. So we were packing like crazy and got going. Eventually, on Tuesday, my dad rang and told us that the strike got sorted out. Typical! We didn't mind too much though as we got to see Brussells.

I was being too nice to myself!

Oudenaarde is great. We met Luc on Tuesday at the train station and he brought us to the ASFRA shop and got all the paperwork sorted, introduced me to a few people, got my new kit etc.. It's now official, The only thing left is getting my licence from Cycling Ireland and that's on it's way! Since being here I've done three rides, the first was just down the canal, second - I rode to watch a local Kermesse with Hamish, and the third was today - I rode some of the route of Ronde Van Vlaanderen. Some brilliant roads, some not so brilliant (cobbles). Exciting stuff! I can definitely confirm that I like the idea of cobbles more than I actually do, and climbing a 22% cobbled climb (Koppenburg)is not nice! Hamish Graham is also staying in the same place as me. I rode the JTOI with him last year and knew him from the web and met him a few times before. It's good to have someone you know around. Really nice guy!

The Kermesse was a good experience, although I didnt race it as there were no Juniors it was good to see what a Belgian race was like. Much different to Ireland! There were a few hundred people there just watching, you'd hardly get that at 2 races in Ireland!

My first race is this Saturday and I think it's pretty local! So I'll try and give another update after that, wish me luck. I hope it goes well!

That's pretty much it, I know there is lots I'm leaving out. I have a few pictures on my phone and I'll try and get them up on my twitter as soon as I can get some wifi! Forgive me for this poor update..

Stay tuned!

Eoin